George Replacing Christiane On 'This Week'

The official word is that Christiane Amanpour wants to get back into reporting from the field — not that This Week’s ratings have slipped. She’ll become a roving Global Affairs anchor hosting six prime time specials a year, along with work on other ABC News shows. In addition, she’ll anchor a new show about global affairs on CNN International. Meanwhile George Stephanopolous moves back to the Sunday talk show in time for the political election season, while he continues his job as co-host of Good Morning America. Amanpour says that her new role “is groundbreaking, bold and very different!” CNN Worldwide President Jim Walton was also effusive in his praise for Amanpour, saying that she “has been synonymous with international reporting and with CNN for many years. We could not be happier that through this unique arrangement with ABC News her experience and global perspective are returning to a nightly news broadcast for our international audience.” But it will be interesting to see whether more viewers tune in to This Week which has struggled since she moved to the anchor desk in early 2010. On Dec. 4 it attracted 2.3M viewers, behind Meet The Press with 3.0M and Face The Nation with 3.3M. ABC says that White House correspondent Jake Tapper will appear “significantly more” frequently on the Sunday show with Stephanopolous.